Exploded View

Forma, Dusted

Exploded View

“The summer sun came early that year … but we didn’t question a thing.”

Exploded View is: Annika Henderson, Martin Thulin, Hugo Quezada and Amon Melgarejo. After finishing the songs that became their self-titled debut LP for Sacred Bones, Exploded View decided to go back into the studio and record some more. Mixed in with some of the outtakes of the first record, such as “Mirror of the Madman,” the songs on Summer Came Early signal a step forward for the band, revealing more clarity and focus than the first, yet retaining a certain messy experimentalism that gives them the freedom they crave.

The psychotic tale of “Mirror of the Madman” shatters into to the softness of “Summer Came Early,” an epitaph to the environment, written in a post-warming future. “Forever Free” captures a “baroque” approach, with a curious combination of sounds: the fake harpsichord synth sound and the mellotron, plus the "bleeping sound" sequence caused by Hugo Quezada’s personal obsession with Raymond Scott. The track is a tale of mental entrapment and finding the key to freedom from within. The final song, “You Got A Problem Son,” almost went undiscovered. It could have easily been buried and forgotten eternally, had it not been found by Quezada and Martin Thulin while listening through the 8-track tapes for something else. The lead sound was made with a four-oscillator synth, with the four oscillators slightly out of tune with one another; a nice metaphor for the band perhaps, ending the trip with a disjointed rush; a mod-tale, begging for repeated listening.

Forma

FORMA’s combustible mixture of lush synth explorations and frenetic rhythm has captivated the margins of the international synth scene since their acclaimed 2011 debut on John Elliott’s Spectrum Spools label. Following 2012’s dark and penetrating OFF/ON, the trio set a direct course toward the shadowy perimeter of the dancefloor, with John Also Bennett replacing original member Sophie Lam. FORMA’s celebrated live performances -- extended improvisational journeys veering from the ecstatic to the foreboding -- draw techno, noise, and synth disciples into their realm.

Dusted

Dusted is the ever-evolving, songwriting venture for Brian Borcherdt- one fourth and founding member of Holy Fuck. While Holy Fuck set out in the mid 2000s to make artful dance music, featuring an uncharacteristic amount of noise and little to no singing, Dusted is the total antithesis to that. Dusted is sombre (for the most part) and minimal (but not always). It just so happens that, while Holy Fuck is known for the party, Dusted is known for the morning after… whether it be a moody place of self-reflection or a cathartic place of joy and freedom.

Dusted released their first record in 2012 on Polyvinyl and on hometown Toronto label, Hand Drawn Dracula. The album featured mostly guitar and vocal recorded live off the floor while in the back ground, as if haunted from another room, layers of strings and eerie tones fill out the minimal soundscape. Live, Brian is joined by wife Anna Edwards and longtime friend Loel Campbell creating a much heavier and dynamic sound, earning them opening tours with Place To Bury Strangers, Wooden Sky, and Perfume Genius. They've also appeared in two of Jean Marc Vallee's films, cast on stage in Wild and heard on the soundtrack of his upcoming film Demolition. Dusted is designed to be a slow burner, their follow up material is set for release as singles and EPs over the next year… In the meantime Borcherdt's other project LIDS, featuring members of Metz and Constantines, are also releasing seven inches and touring only in rare appearances. Dusted represents a special part of Toronto's eclectic music scene and is a further limb to the strange legacy of Holy Fuck.